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“Come on, come on,” says Senna as she pulls on my arm towards one of the two restaurants in Tpishi. “How are you moving so slow without your armor?”
“It’s a natural talent. Hunter hates it too,” I reply while slowing myself down further. Senna realizes what I’m doing and sighs dramatically.
“Of course a noble such as Lady Francine Elizabeth Archibald IV would be this difficult. One would think the adventurer in you would appreciate free food.”
“Ugh, I told you to call me Liz. And what do you mean ‘free’? Isn’t the gold I gave you two days ago paying for this?”
Her dark face reddens slightly. “No! That would be incredibly rude of me. I got a job so I could pay for this.”
“You got a job in two days? That’s impressive.”
Her blush deepens and I think I hear her whisper “not really” as she opens the door for me. By the time we find a table, she has recovered a bit.
“You know how I said my family, the Metaxas, are merchants? Well, they’re pretty big name merchants. So, I kind of mentioned I’m their daughter to the bank in town and now I have a little money.”
“Good for you! I knew you could do it.”
“Thanks. This is mostly only to pay my way back home in a month or two. In addition, I’m just getting a daily reminder that I don’t want to be a merchant for a living. Anyways, the first thing I wanted to do after finding a place to sleep is thank my rescuer.”
I look at her, confusion on my face. “Uh, okay. You know it wasn’t just me, right? And I wouldn’t exactly call arresting you for banditry ‘rescuing’.”
Senna opens her mouth, but is interrupted by the server asking for our orders. I order some kind of fish I can’t pronounce and wine, while Senna gets lamb and an ale. After the server leaves, I turn and see that Senna is staring at me. When she notices that I notice, she blushes and immediately finds something else to look at. I think I know what this “thanks-for-saving-me-from-cultists” lunch is really about now.
I sip the wine while she regains her wits. It’s much fruitier than I’m used to back in Mendev, must be the climate.
“Have you always wanted to be a paladin?” Senna asks me.
I hesitate. Not many people know besides Hunter that I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. “Not always. I was more born into it. In Mendev everyone trains to fight the Worldwound, in whatever way they can. My blessing was a strong body and the ability to inspire those around me. My eldest sister is a cleric and the sister after her is a wizard; I was the first one to respond well to training with the mistress-at-arms.”
“What would you do if you hadn’t been raised to fight demons?” asks Senna.
No one has ever asked me that. My mind just draws up a blank. “I don’t know,” I say quietly, looking away.
Senna looks mortified. “I’m sorry!” she exclaims. “I didn’t mean to upset you--”
“No, it’s all right, you didn’t,” I interrupt. “It’s just no one asks that in Mendev. You just get assigned a task that you would be good at to help in the crusades.”
“Well, what do you like to do when you’re free? You can’t be fighting all the time.”
“I do research on demons and contemplate my oath to Iomedae--”.
Senna cuts me off, “No, I mean you have to do things unrelated to your duties. Aren’t nobles taught to sew, play an instrument, or dance?”
“Oh. Well I do know how to dance, though it has been a while. I sketch in my journal a bit, they aren’t very good though.” My journal is mostly sketches and no one is allowed to see them, except for Stampy, Hunter’s stegosaurus companion.
“Aww, that can’t be true. Can I please see them sometime?”.
“Maybe someday, if you show me what you do in your free time,” I counter.
“Of course. One of my family’s main trade goods is textiles so I’ve gotten very good at sewing and leatherwork. In fact, I modified most of the bandits’ armor while I worked with them,” Senna says very proudly. At least she isn’t ashamed of her passions.
I playfully dodge questions about my artwork until the server comes back with our food. My fish is the color of mud and still has its head. Senna catches my look of mild disgust and asks if something is wrong.
“Oh nothing, just didn’t expect my fish to be so dirty looking,” I say a little bitterly.
“Hey, Lady Liz, in this part of the world, pretty things are dangerous. I have personal experience with that.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Didn’t Hunter ever tell you about poisonous beasts are more colorf--” she starts saying.
“No, I mean what about ‘personal experience’?” I interrupt.
“Oh. Uh, nothing,” she stammers. I can see a light blush beginning to form on her cheeks. She starts eating her lamb so she has an excuse to not say anything.
I keep pushing her on it, still not touching my mudfish. “Come on, what was that about?” My hunch that this is more than a thank you meal is getting stronger all the time.
Senna’s face is getting redder the more I press; she just shakes her head. I decide to try my fish instead of teasing her more. It’s much tastier than it looks, and spicier than any northern fish I’ve ever had. I can feel my own face starting to heat up.
We don’t talk much more while we’re eating. I’m sipping wine in between bites of my spiced fish. Now I’m sure I have my own noticeable blush. Senna’s composure seems not to have returned since my questioning.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m a little more than tipsy or because I feel bad about the “interrogation” but I say, “If I show you some of my journal, will you tell me what this lunch is really about?”
Senna looks around nervously before looking at me. She opens her mouth, hesitates and then says, a bit loudly, “Is that a stegosaurus?”
I whip around and immediately recognize Stampy casually trotting down the street. Senna isn’t the only one who’s noticed the dinosaur. I see a handful of guards following Stampy at a safe distance, but from the way their weapons are raised I don’t think they’ve seen his collar.
“Excuse me, I need to corral an overgrown lizard,” I say to Senna as I grab an apple from her plate. I almost knock over the server dashing out the door.
--
“Stampy! Stampy come here!” I yell once I’m on the street. If people didn’t notice the dinosaur before, they do now. “Stampy, I got a treat!” He stops, turns his tiny feathered head back towards me, and slowly blinks his oversized eyes. Then he notices the apple I’m holding and turns into the lightning fast animal Hunter and I fight alongside. He knocks me on the ground before I realize it, biting for the apple.
“Okay okay! You can have it. Just get off of me!” I shout. By the time I get back on my feet, the guards have come over.
“Ma’am, is this your dinosaur?” the lead guard demands.
“Er, no. He belongs to a friend.”
“Do you know that all animals larger than hunting dogs are to be kept tied to a post or in a pen while in town?”
“I did not, but now that I know I will inform my friend of this law,” I say, turning around to Stampy. “I will make sure Stampy is properly tied up. Now if you excuse me...”
“Wait a minute, ma’am. There’s a twenty gold fee for illegally kept animals,” the lead guard says.
“Ah. Do I pay this at the town hall?” I look in my coin purse. “I only have a few gold pieces, so I can come by later.”
“Actually, you can pay us now. If you don’t have enough then we’ll take the offending animal into custody. My friends and I have worked up quite the appetite chasing it around,” the guard says and I hear several chuckle behind him.
“Sergeant Donavan!”
The lead guard immediately stiffens and turns towards Senna, who is furiously walking towards us. “How dare you try to extort an employee of the Nexus Conglomerate! You weren’t actually planning on eating the animal companion of another employee were you?”
“No! Of course not, Lady Senna. We’re merely enforcing the law--” Sgt Donavan starts.
“I don’t want to hear it! My family invested quite a bit into this expedition. This group of employees is the most successful we’ve had so far. If they fail because the guards are harassing them, the guild master and investors will be sure to hear about it.”
“That’s all right Lady Senna, you and your friend can go right along. It was just a little joke. No hard feelings, right?” he asks me, extending his hand.
“No, of course not. I won’t even tell my friend you tried eating her best friend,” I say sweetly. I take his hand and squeeze until I see the smile drop from his face. We turn around and head to the Conglomerate housing.
Once we’re out of view of the guards I grab Senna in a tight hug. “Thank you! That was incredible!” Senna squeaks and manages a quiet “you’re welcome.” When I set her back down her face is the reddest I’ve seen yet. “Come on, you should officially meet Hunter, she’ll want to thank you for helping me with Stampy.”
Senna stops me. “Wait, I want to tell you that I did have an ulterior motive for inviting you to lunch.” She hesitates and seems to be struggling with the words.
“Hey, it’s all right. I figured it out. You don’t need to say it if it’s hard. We can talk about it later. I was just teasing you earlier,” I say.
She relaxes and says, “Yeah I wasn’t very subtle.”
I laugh. “No, you weren’t. Let’s go before Stampy tries to wander off again.”
I offer my hand. She smiles and takes it as we follow Stampy.